Pleasantly pleasing practically perfect pizza dough

byJoan Robinett WilsononMay 30, 2011

Coco loves olive pizza

This pizza dough is so easy to make and so, so good. I usually double the recipe and freeze any leftovers.

I used to be afraid of making bread or pizza dough because I never had the patience to knead it well enough. Then, I discovered the kitchen aid mixer! It makes kneading dough so easy. Let me warn you now, as a woman who has personally killed two kitchen aid mixers…never mix bread dough at a speed higher than 2 and you don’t need to mix it as long as you would by hand. Thank heavens Kitchen Aid mixers have great warranties and service.

I found this recipe in Sunset Magazine (August 2009) and it’s a keeper. The original called for grilling the pizza, but I just bake it. I adapted a pizza sauce recipe from the same article.

Practically Perfect Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1 packageactive dry yeast

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cupsflour

1 1/2 t.salt

Cooking Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir yeast into 1 1/2 cups warm water. Let stand about 5 minutes.

Add the oil, flour and salt. Mix with the dough hook on speed 1 to blend. Then mix on speed 2 until dough is very smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Dough will still feel tacky.

At this point,if you want to make this ahead of time, you can refrigerate at least 3 hours and up to 2 days. Dough will double in size and flavor will develop as it stands.

Cover and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk - about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough and let rise again until doubled - 30 to 45 minutes.

Turn dough onto a floured work surface and cut into 6 equal portions. For each pizza, lay a sheet of parchment on work surface and flatten dough portions with well oiled hand into 9 to 10 inch rounds. Let dough stand until puffy , about 15 minutes.

Spread about 2 T. of pizza sauce to top and the top with your favorite toppings.

Fit as many parchments with pizza as you can on top of a large baking sheet.

Snohomish, WA is where you’ll find me, architect mom,”drafting a life”;working from home as an architect, managing my family’s lives, forgetting to clean the house, building some crazy thing or another, sometimes cooking a great meal and always packing my kids horrible lunches.